The most important point about Tatort made in the Times article is the regional nature of the episodes themselves:

There are 15 versions of “Tatort” produced by the various regional divisions of ARD, the German public broadcasting system. So this means there’s a Leipzig “Tatort,” a Frankfurt “Tatort,” a Bremen “Tatort,” a Kiel “Tatort,” a Stuttgart “Tatort” and even a Vienna one, made by Austrian television, all of which take turns sharing the Sunday time slot with “Polizeiruf 110,” the former East German knockoff of the show, still producing new episodes occasionally.

Consider the show a kind of microcosm of the German Federal Republic. Its producers proudly tout it that way. Each “Tatort” makes something of its regional roots, with actors speaking in local accents, solving crimes based on local imbroglios. [my emphasis, just to point out that there is an Austrian one too.]

This regional flair is the feature of the show that really helped me learn to understand German. The different accents and local dialect lead you to pay close attention to what’s being said; that makes for great practice.

Anyway it’s quite nice to see it mentioned in a major US paper, since I can never share my own enjoyment of the show with friends back home — they just don’t “get it!”